Head of the Charles Results

Had a great race on Saturday in the Masters Eight rowing for Ever Green Boat club – strong, smooth, consistent, perfect steering, no mishaps except for a broken cox-box. So we were all surprised to learn that we came in 13th? In retrospect we were part of a tight grouping of times in which 10 seconds separated a whole bunch of boats. To give perspective, we were still within 10% of the winning time even with that mediocre placing. So all things considered, it was a good outing, and the only thing to do is get fitter as this race seems to get faster and faster each year.

Here’s a pic. I was rowing 7-seat on starboard, which was interesting as the last time I raced on starboard was sophomore year in college. Sculling for so long has given me a lot of flexibility in being able to jump into any seat in a sweep boat and perform pretty well, and bombing down the course at a 32 was again no problem with the Crossfit Endurance training under my belt.

The funny anecdotes happened walking down the path back to my car at the end of the day. First I saw a guy on a longboard with a Kahuna Big Stick doing a slalom up the row of orange cones in the trailer parking lot. Then I saw this poor dude slowly wobbling up the path on his bike carrying a pair of sculls, trying to maneuver through the crowd and having to go so slowly that he almost had to stop. As he got closer I saw that it was a really nice bike and a really big dude. No, it couldn’t be…but it was…Mahe Drysdale ! He must have landed at the Northeastern boathouse after his race and there he was just like any other rower in the crowd…amazing.